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Alien
Asteroids
This
artist's
concept
illustrates
what the
night sky
might look
like from
a
hypothetical
alien
planet in
a star
system
with an
asteroid
belt 25
times as
massive as
the one in
our own
solar
system.
NASA's
Spitzer
Space
Telescope
found
evidence
for such a
belt
around the
nearby
star
called HD
69830,
when its
infrared
eyes
spotted
dust,
presumably
from
asteroids
banging
together.
The
telescope
did not
find any
evidence
for a
planet in
the
system,
but
astronomers
speculate
one or
more may
be
present.
In our
solar
system,
anybody
observing
the skies
on a
moonless
night far
from city
lights can
see the
sunlight
that is
scattered
by dust in
our
asteroid
belt.
Called
zodiacal
light and
sometimes
the
"false
dawn,"
this light
appears as
a dim band
stretching
up from
the
horizon
when the
Sun is
about to
rise or
set. The
zodiacal
light in
the HD
69830
system
would be
1,000
times
brighter
than our
own,
outshining
even the
Milky Way. |
